#mar writes

The idea of getting a card from someone that was so in love with you that they couldn’t just come out and say it, so they had to resort to sending you something anonymous with just enough clues for you to figure out who it came from was horribly romantic to you at the time.

But it never came.

There was a card once, but that one didn’t particularly count. Your best friend from middle school even signed the card with her name, written with a pink strawberry scented marker, and a few words about how much she loved being your friend.

You’d given her one too. A card with a panda if memory serves, that said “lets be pals”. You’d written something similar to what she had and signed it with your name, written with a red cherry scented marker that matched the color of her hair.

There never were any other cards. Not even when you were in relationships, because of your remarkable ability to date guys that either forgot all about it or didn’t care for it.

Your last boyfriend even argued that he didn’t need a specific day to show you how much he loved you, not that he did that on any of the other 364 days either. You were lucky if he even gave you a birthday present on time.

It only made you grow more jaded over the years.

You sigh deeply and hang your head forward. A finger pokes your side immediately.

“Stop it, Vickie,” you grumble without lifting your head.

“You keep sighing,” she says from your left, the only person that ever gave you a valentine’s card. “It’s stressing me out.”

“Well sorry,” you reply. “I can’t help that I hate this day.”

“Maybe if your ex hadn’t been such an inconsiderate asshole, you’d love it more,” Robin pipes up across from you.

The three of you are crammed into a booth at Benny’s Burgers. The clock on the wall was slowly crawling up to one in the afternoon.

Robin and Vickie had made plans for the evening. A date at Enzo’s followed by a viewing of Radio Days at the Hawk Theater.

Robin had shown up hours early at the apartment that you shared with Vickie and you had assumed that she’d been so shot with nerves that she had simply forgotten at what time she was supposed to pick Vickie up.

It was their first Valentine’s Day as a couple and you were smiling to yourself as they stood in the hallway, talking to each other in hushed voices.

You had no intention of intruding, fully intending to spend the rest of the day on your own. The only plans that you had were to watch My Bloody Valentine or something equally bloody in the evening simply because you had felt like it, but then they emerged in the living room, standing side by side and looking at you which had made you apprehensive before they had even opened their mouths.

Sensing this, both of them launched into a rambling explanation about how they didn’t think that it was fair that you’d be all alone today and made it clear that they’d kept their morning and afternoon open for you, insisting that you join them for milkshakes at least.

The lure of Benny’s milkshakes is what ultimately made you leave the house (Vickie knew that you’d crawl a mile through broken glass for one which was exactly why she had suggested it), but you sure were regretting that decision now.

You’re halfway through your second milkshake, hoping for brainfreeze to set in so you’d have something else to focus on. The only thing that was on your mind was how you had even let them drag you out of the house with a half assed explanation that you hadn’t entirely believed.

There’s an almost empty plate of fries between you. Only the saddest ones are left and Robin keeps poking at them with her index finger whilst she tries to decide whether to eat them or not.

“I’m dragging the mood down.” You fold your arms on the smooth surface of the table, worn with age, and rest your head on it. “You guys should have left me at home.”

“Come on.” Vickie starts pulling on your arm instead, but you don’t budge. “I hate seeing you like this.”

“It’s only temporary. I’ll be back to myself tomorrow.”

“It’s just a day,” Robin mumbled.

“Yeah, a day that’s dedicated to love and something that I’ve always been told is either commercial or not important.” You can’t see their faces, but you just know that they’re frowning, probably giving each other pitying looks as well. And honestly? You can’t really blame them. They were only trying to be nice when they dragged you out of the house and it had backfired spectacularly. “Look,” you sigh wearily. “I’ll be fine. Just let me lament being single for one day.”

If you’d been paying attention, you would have heard the bell chime as the door opened to announce the arrival of another patron. You might even have heard the jangle of a chain as they moved, but you had completely missed it.

It’s not until this person comes to a standstill next to the table that you’re occupying with your friends that you notice that someone is even there at all.

You assume that it’s the waitress and you’re half expecting her to ask if she could get the three of you anything else. If you could have been bothered to look, you definitely would have recognised those familiar sneakers.

It’s not until a distinctly male voice clears his throat that you slowly look up and find out that Eddie Munson is standing next to the table. He’s rocking on his heels, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, brown eyes meeting yours briefly before looking away.

“Ladies!” He practically shouts the greeting, loud enough to make you wince, and he cringes immediately. “What brings you to this fine establishment?”

“We’re just hangi-,” Robin answers.

“Why don’t you join us?” Vickie asks before Robin can even finish her sentence.

“Don’t mind if I do.” He slides in next to Robin, across from you. “What a coincidence that you guys were here.”

It almost sounds like they’re rattling off lines from a badly written script, but you choose to ignore it. Just another thing that you can add to the list of things that have happened on this already weird day.

You’re not really listening to what they’re talking about, but something’s very, very off.

Eddie won’t meet your eye for one.

He usually flirted with you like his life depended on it, compliments always rolling off his tongue with remarkable ease, so the fact that he was sitting across from you now and looked like he might bolt out the door any second was starting to make you more suspicious as time went on.

He was also more fidgety than usual.

His hands immediately reach for the empty ketchup packet, tearing it further open and covering the tips of his fingers with red sauce. Since that was not his intention, he tries to put it back on the plate, overshoots, and before you know it, there are red stripes on the table which he nervously wipes away with a napkin until Robin shoots him a look.

So he starts playing with the broken zipper and chains on the sleeve of his leather jacket instead.

It also doesn’t help that he sits ramrod straight next to Robin, like someone stuck a broomhandle down the back of his shirt. His shoulders are tense, a frown forming that’s knitting his eyebrows together, but it’s not until the waitress comes to ask him if he wants to order anything and he says that he’s not hungry that you really know that something isn’t right.

Eddie had a big appetite and while you wouldn’t say that he was eating all the time, he was never not hungry.

On the occasions that you’d gone out to get something to eat with the group, afterwards when everyone was full, Eddie was usually working his way through a box of Runts or a bag of Sour Patch Kids. He always had either Twizzlers or Pop Rocks on his person.

So whatever was going on to make Eddie lose his appetite, it must have been pretty bad.

You’re seconds away from asking him if he’s coming down with something, when Robin breaks through the slightly uncomfortable silence.

“Babe, I think I left my wallet at your place.” Robin starts patting the pockets of her jacket and you can see her hands moving down to her jeans so she can repeat the move there. She starts winking at Vickie rather conspicuously, not seeming to realise that you can clearly see what she’s doing. You can see her jolt suddenly, blue eyes darting to Eddie as she exclaims, “What the hell!”

“You did? Oh no.” Despite the fact that her girlfriend obviously just got a kick to the shin, Vickie barrels on without acknowledging it, her voice shooting up a few octaves dramatically in reply. “We should go back and pick it up.”

You can’t stop a low “oh my god” from escaping from your lips. They are quite possibly the worst actors ever. Vickie can’t lie to save her own life and whilst Robin is a little bit better at it, that’s not really saying much.

“I’ll pick up the tab,” Eddie offers helpfully with a wry smile.

You move to stand, allowing Vickie to get out of the booth, and before you can say or do anything, her hand touches your shoulder gently, moving around you to block your route to the exit.

“Why don’t you stay here?” She suggests with a sly smile. “With Eddie?”

Oh. Now you got it. In an attempt to make you feel better, they had decided to lump you with the first guy that walked through the door. You were just lucky that it was Eddie, but they never even bothered to ask if he was even okay with it at all.

“Why?” You look at him apologetically and notice how his expression falls slightly. “Maybe he has plans already.”

It wasn’t like you wanted him to feel obligated in keeping you company so you had only said that to be helpful, to ensure that he could leave with no hard feelings whatsoever.

“Nope. No plans,” he replies too fast whilst scooting from the seat himself to let Robin out. “Completely free.”

“Okay.” You drag the word out, slowly piecing together why your friends might be acting so oddly in the first place. “If you two wanted some alone time you could have said,” you mutter to Vickie. “I wouldn’t have had any problem with staying out of your hair.”

“That’s not what this is about at all. This is just- I don’t want you to be alone today?”

“Why did you just turn that into a question?” You and Eddie sit back down at the same time and you can hear him groaning softly. “No one asked Eddie if he’s okay with it.”

“He is!” Robin’s voice is so loud that several people in Benny’s are now staring at her. “He’s totally fine with it.”

“You don’t even know th-“

“He’s still here, right?” She looks at Eddie then, to get some support maybe, but he offers none. “Look at him! He’s totally-“

“We have to go.” Vickie grabs Robin’s arm right before she can say more and starts dragging her towards the exit. “Have fun you two!”

You don’t even get to say goodbye before they dart out the door and you watch them leave through the window. Vickie was dragging Robin to her car, their mouths moving fast, their gestures betraying that they’re obviously arguing, but you have no idea what about.

“If you don’t want to hang out that’s okay.” Eddie’s voice is soft as he talks, pulling your attention back to him. “I won’t twist your arm.”

“I like spending time with you, Eddie,” you answer truthfully and relief blooms over his face, seemingly relaxing him instantly. “I’m just a total killjoy at the moment. And I’m so sorry that you got stuck with me just because those two want some alone time.”

“I don’t mind.” You narrow your eyes, disbelief plain to see on your face, but he just reaffirms it. “Honest.”

“You must have better things to do,” you argue, “on today of all days.”

“What do you mean?” He starts pulling on the collar of his Hellfire shirt like he can’t breathe. “What’s today?”

“Come on, Eddie. You don’t know? It’s Valentine’s Day.”

“Oh right. That’s today.”

“Yeah, that’s today,” you repeat. “I know that it’s probably against everything that you believe in, but you don’t have a date lined up?”

Eddie looks at you then, really looks, his gaze suddenly intense. You can feel your cheeks heating up and when you dip your head down to take the last sip of your milkshake, you can see him looking at your lips.

“I might have,” he shrugs with a slight smile.

“Oh.” Your reply is soft and suddenly you’re wondering what Eddie’s even doing here with you when there might be someone else waiting for him. “Sh-shouldn’t you go then?”

“Nah.” He sounds deliberately vague, like he doesn’t really want to talk about it. “I have time.”

It makes your mind drift again. For as far as you know he’s not seeing anyone, but it could still be so fresh and new that he hadn’t mentioned it before.

You know that he gets plenty of attention, but no one has ever stuck around for a long period of time.

You’ve seen the women that sometimes come up to him after he’s played at The Hideout with his band. You’ve noticed the way their hands would touch his arm, how they’d press close to him and lean in to whisper something into his ear that made his breathing stutter and his cheeks color even redder.

Sometimes you liked to wish that you were as bold and confident as they were, but that was never going to happen.

Whatever it was that you felt for him, it was better off staying unspoken. Just a harmless little crush that was never going to develop into something more.

“If you’re sure,” you say as you chew on your bottom lip. Eddie nods with not a hint of doubt on his face. “Not like I have anything else planned.” The words come out sounding sadder than you had intended. “What did you want to do?”

“We could go to the park?”

It catches you off guard a little since that’s not what you were expecting him to suggest at all. It seems so… mundane. Normal. Like something that you’d do on a date, but that was a ridiculous assumption.

Yeah, he flirted with you, but you knew that wasn’t solely reserved for you. He did it with everyone. I mean, we’re talking about the guy that won’t stop calling Steve “big boy” until his cheeks turned pink and he got told to stop.

It’s not like you were special in any way. It was just… different. Constantly telling you how good you looked, complimenting even the smallest things, all the way down to a new set of earrings or a shade of lipstick that you weren’t sure that you liked enough just yet.

Things that other people wouldn’t notice, he did. He noticed even the slightest things without fail every single time.

You shake your head to get that particular thought out of there, willing it back into the dark recesses of your mind, not wanting to get needlessly sidetracked.

When you really thought about what he had suggested, it wasn’t like there was a lot else that you could do.

The two of you couldn’t stay here forever, not without ordering anything anyway. You couldn’t take him back to your place since there was no telling what Vickie and Robin were getting up to. The Hideout wasn’t an option either since it didn’t open until a couple of hours at least.

So where else could you go? The library? The arcade?

“If you don’t want to go, that’s okay. I just figured that people watching could be fun. See who’s dates are going horribly wrong, that sorta thing.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go. It’s just an unusual choice, that’s all.”

“For me or in general?”

“For you.” Not wanting to be rude, you add, “No offence but the only times that we tend to see each other is when alcohol or weed is involved.”

“Too early for beer,” he says and he was right, it was, but you also knew that if you were to offer, he probably wouldn’t say no. “And I don’t roll my first joint until it’s at least two in the afternoon.”

“So in an hour.”

“Yeah, so if you want to get high in an hour, I’m your man.” He grins wide, dimples appearing in his cheeks. “Do you want to go?”

“Sure. Sounds like fun.”

Eddie gets up so fast that his knees knock into the table, making him wince. He holds his hands up, signaling that you’re to remain seated, which you do. You twiddle your thumbs as he pays the bill, a smile still plastered all over his face, and then reappears next to you.

Before you can even move, Eddie’s already holding his hand out to you, even going so far as bowing when you take it, every inch the showman. You can feel how clammy his palm is as he guides you out of Benny’s and towards his van. When he unlocks the door on the passenger side, he even opens it for you first and then starts helping you up into the passenger seat.

As soon as he closes the door behind you, he rushes over to his side, long hair bouncing, still grinning when he gets in.

It’s not until he’s actually inside himself that he pauses. You can see his throat bob, jaw clenched tight, eyes darting to you and then straight ahead, like he’s figuring out what to do next.

You’re about to ask him what’s wrong, thinking that he may have changed his mind and was simply waiting for a moment to break the news to you gently when you were alone together and away from prying eyes.

Eddie leans forward, forehead pressed against the steering wheel with his eyes closed. His knuckles go white from how hard he’s clutching his knees, like he’s mentally preparing himself for something that could go horribly wrong.

When his eyes finally open, he looks like himself again, but there’s still a hint of trepidation about him. And he still won’t meet your questioning eyes.

“I’m sorry, I don’t really- I mean I-“ He exhales heavily, blinks and manages to recompose himself briefly. His hand reaches behind his seat and he pulls out a small bouquet of flowers. “This is for you.”

Purple violets.

It looks like something that he handpicked rather than bought in a shop. Even the string that’s tied around it, a broken shoelace, looks like he found it lying on the floor of his bedroom earlier today.

You bring them up to your nose and take a whiff of them, the sweet powdery scent flooding your nostrils.

“Oh fuck.” Eddie mutters suddenly and it’s not until you blink that you realise that you’re crying. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.”

“I didn’t even know I was,” you sniffle with a smile. You touch your cheeks, feeling the wetness there and when you pull your hand away, you stare at the wet pads of your fingers for a beat too long. “This is the sweetest thing that anyone’s ever done for me.”

“I’m not done yet.” He produces a crumpled envelope from his jacket pocket, Wayne’s name carefully crossed out on the front, and hands it to you. When you look inside, you see two movie tickets. “Light of Day,” he mutters under his breath.

“What?”

“I got tickets to see Light of Day at 6. You haven’t seen it yet?”

“No, I haven’t. You asked me the same thing last week.”

At least now you know why he kept asking you about it. Everything about that weird conversation makes sense now and with a bit of luck, you’d get to the bottom of that later on.

“Just checking. The whole day would have been ruined if you’d seen it since then.”

“Even if I had, I could have watched it again.”

“Yeah?”

Eddie leans forward again, folding his arms before placing them over the steering wheel, cheek pressed against them so he can look at you and how you’re smiling to yourself.

The two of you sat in silence for a while, him staring at you and you pointedly looking at everything that wasn’t him. Your heart is already furiously beating away inside your chest. You need to try to calm yourself down enough so you could make it through the rest of the day.

And even glancing at him would ruin that entirely.

“So,” he broke through the silence eventually, noting that you wouldn’t look at him, “where do you wanna go? You can pick any place and I’ll take you there.” You glance at him out of the corner of your eye and then press your nose into the flowers again to cover the lower half of your face. “The quarry, Skull Rock, Lover’s Lake…” His voice drops lower when he says those last two words and you feel a shiver run down your spine. “Anywhere. Just say the word. I’ll even take you home if that’s what you want.”

“I thought you were taking me to the park?”

“You still want to go?”

“I mean, yeah? Isn’t this supposed to be a date?”

You see him freeze. It hadn’t been explicitly called a date, but that’s what this was, right? That’s what it was supposed to be.

“Damn right it is.”

Those words spur him into action, sitting back upright and turning the key into the ignition as the engine roars to life.

Now that he has to keep his attention on the road, you’re at liberty to keep sneaking glances at him as much as you like, but you can see how the corners of his mouth keep curling up every time that he feels that your eyes are on him.

It wasn’t a long drive to the park, but it felt like a lifetime and it isn’t until he parks the van that you find your voice again.

“It wasn’t a coincidence that you ran into us at Benny’s, right?”

“What gave it away?” As he’s moving to get out, he does the same thing as earlier, signaling you to stay put until he’s at your side to help you out. His hand lingers at the small of your back for a few seconds before he pulls away. “Robin and Vickie’s wooden acting?”

“Don’t try to pretend that you were doing any better,” you say as you fall into step next to him.

“I thought I was.”

“You weren’t.”

“Well shit,” he huffs and rubs a hand over his chin. “I really tried to make it seem natural, you know. Like I just happened to find you guys there.”

Eddie walks close enough to you that you can practically feel the warmth that’s radiating off of him, but never close enough to actually touch. There’s barely any space between the two of you, but there’s still this invisible barrier surrounding you that neither of you seems to want to breach for now.

“How did this even happen?” You can’t help it, you’re still curious about how this even came about to begin with. “Talk to me.”

“I might have asked Robin and Vickie to help me out.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, because I didn’t really know where to begin?” He scratches his jaw absentmindedly in an attempt to keep his hands busy. “Does that make sense? I mean, I’ve been overthinking it for a long time.”

You hadn’t been able to tell, that’s the weirdest thing.

Vickie wasn’t the best at keeping things from you, never had been, but she had managed to keep this from you just fine. But lately there have been a lot of moments where she had fled into the comfort of her bedroom a bit too often, offering up excuses about how she wasn’t feeling too well before she disappeared.

Eddie leads you to an empty bench and sits down first. His curious eyes look up at yours when you don’t sit down immediately. He can tell that you’re thinking about something hard, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.

It’s all in the way that you’re frowning, chewing on your bottom lip and how your hands are twisting together like you do when you’re nervous.

“What’s up?” He can’t help but feel like you might be changing your mind, but things had been going incredibly well up until this point so it might just be something else.

You finally sit down next to him, eyes cautious suddenly and then you ask, “How long?”

So that’s what was bugging you.

“Since that loser dumped you,” he says honestly.

It had been eight months since your relationship ended and truth be told, you were glad that it had. The love had been gone for quite some time, but you still stuck around, somehow still hopeful that things could still change but they didn’t.

In the end all that you were clinging onto was the way that he used to be at the beginning and he hadn’t been that way for a long time.

If you had even one inkling that Eddie had been interested, you would have broken it off a lot sooner.

“I didn’t know when it would have been acceptable to ask you out and then before I knew it six months had passed by and I still hadn’t figured out when I should make a move,” Eddie continues. “I asked Steve, but he was no help at all.”

You giggled, wondering what Steve had even told him. Probably told him to get his head out of his ass and to just go for it.

“I also didn’t say who I was thinking of asking out, but he figured that one out pretty quickly.”

“Because I’m the only one in our friend group that’s been single for a while,” you snort in amusement. “Well, me and Steve.”

“Hey, I might have a thing for him. Have you seen him?”

It makes you laugh. Loud and genuine. Eddie looks pleased as punch that he even managed to pull such a sound from you, because you haven’t looked this happy in a while.

“So when are you guys going to announce your engagement?”

“Never. He turned me down.” You slap your hand over your mouth, stifling your laughter. You can feel happy tears prickling in the corners of your eyes and it definitely doesn’t help that Eddie starts crowding into your space, his fingers already coming up to your cheeks to wipe away the tears that spilled out. “Our kids would have had such great hair, too.”

“Eddie, stop,” you wheeze. “I’ll die.”

“Wouldn’t want that to happen, princess.”

He stops, thank god. He merely leans into your side, his presence comforting and grounding until you finally stop giggling.

“Okay,” you say finally, calm once more. “But you didn’t think that might be a giveaway? You asking questions like that and me being single, I mean.”

“Honestly, I didn’t think that far ahead.”

“I think it’s sweet though.”

“Yeah?”

“Been a while since someone went through that much trouble for me.”

“That’s ’cause your taste in men is awful. You should be treated right. I’d worship the ground you walk on.” To prove his point, he slides off the bench and drops down to his knees in front of you. It gives rise to some distinctly unsavoury thoughts which you manage to push down. “Treat you the way you deserve to be treated if you ever decide to pick me.”

Your heart skips a beat inside your chest. If you were completely honest, you had wondered what it would be like to date Eddie. A lot more often than you would be willing to admit to.

Before you can finish that particular thought, he comes back up, ringed hands patting the dark denim that’s covering his knees and he flashes you a wide grin.

“You’re tempted, I can tell,” he says as he sits down next to you again, but there’s still a hint of unsureness laced into his voice.

“Maybe I am,” you blurt out and you can feel him stiffen next to you.

Eddie doesn’t answer with his usual show of bravado, but instead you can see his hand reaching for yours. Slow. Tentative. Making sure to give you a chance to pull away if you didn’t want him to touch you. You simply turn your palm upward and you swear you can hear him gasping softly over being granted permission.

Your fingers lace together immediately and it feels natural, like this is something that you’d done many times before. He brings your joined hands up to his face and presses a soft kiss to your fingers. Eddie looks at you then and you can see the softness in his warm brown eyes. 

“Tell me more,” you say softly as you break through the silence.

“Steve blabbed to Robin and before I knew it, she roped Vickie in and then we started conspiring together.”

“Oh my god.”

“I know, right? Real secretive stuff. We made this entire plan and then I almost ruined it when I asked you about Light of Day last week.” He looks incredibly pleased with himself considering how close he came to completely blowing it. “Only way I knew how to get myself out of that one was by telling you I had to go to the toilet real bad.”

“I thought that you were acting weird!” You lightly slap his arm with your free hand and, theatrical as he is, Eddie falls to the side. He doesn’t let go of your hand so he inadvertently pulls you along with him. “You kept asking me if I like Joan Jett and you know I do.”

“I was freaking out! I was so nervous I couldn’t help it.”

“I can’t believe that I make you nervous,” you pull your hand from his grip only so you can fold your arms in an attempt to look displeased. It didn’t work, not even when you tried to pout.

“All the damn time.”

“You hide it well.”

“Doesn’t feel like it. You terrify me.”

“Shut up.” You smile as you take another swipe at him, which he manages to dodge this time. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never that.”

“I don’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just- every time that you’re close to me all this…” He starts gesturing with his hands, fingers and thumbs snapping together repeatedly, mimicking his mouth. “I don’t know, this bullshit just comes out of my mouth and I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.”

“I always thought that you were just flirting with me.”

“Just flirting with you?” Eddie puts his hand on his chest and tries to look offended, but fails. “Christ, I try so hard that I overcompensate and think that I’m making an ass of myself.”

“You don’t. Make an ass of yourself. I always thought it was kinda cute.”

“Really? Seeing me struggle did it for you?”

“Maybe it did.” You drift into his space, lips moving closer to his ear so you can whisper, “Maybe I just liked seeing you suffer.”

Eddie’s eyes widen so far that they look like they might roll out of their sockets. It’s enough to make you pause, thinking that you took it too far. You want to apologise, but he gets there first.

“Fuck,” he says under his breath. “Yeah, maybe don’t say things like that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, fuck, don’t apologise.” It’s his turn to repay the favor and when he turns his head, his lips are so close to your ear that they’re almost brushing against it. “I’m so fucking into it.” His voice is so husky that it makes you flustered and when he pulls away, you can see a self-satisfied smile spread over his face. “I just can’t believe that this is even happening at all.”

You agree with him, and would have said it too, if it wasn’t for his body having a different idea entirely. Right before you could open his mouth, his stomach rumbled.

Loudly.

It’s enough to make you burst out into laughter again while Eddie swears, hangs his head back and covers his face with his arms.

“I’m so sorry,” he blurts out, his cheeks turning red. “I haven’t eaten anything all day because I was so shot with nerves.”

“What the hell, Eddie. You eat all the time, you must be starving.”

“I do not.” He disagrees at first, but when he catches the look you give him, he changes his mind. “I have a healthy appetite, okay. I’m a growing boy.”

“Sure you are.” You get to your feet and drag him up with you. “Let’s go back to Benny’s so you can get something to eat.”

“You just wanna go there so you can have another milkshake,” he mumbles. When you poke a finger into his side, he twitches his body away from you before moving back and throwing his arm around your shoulder. “I don’t mind. I’ll buy you all the milkshakes you want.”

“What a gentleman.”

“You don’t know the half of it, sweetheart.”

The first thing that you notice when getting back into his van are the sad looking violets on your seat. They don’t look like they’re doing too well.

When Eddie slides into the driver’s seat and closes the door behind him, you lean into his space real quick and press your lips against his cheek. You can hear his breathing hitch and can feel his cheek warm up where your mouth is touching him.

“Can you take me back to my place?” You whisper against his skin and you can see his blush rising further as you pull away. You can also see the cogs turning in his head, trying to figure out if this means what he thinks it means. “Not for that.”

“I wasn’t even-“

“You were! These flowers like they need water, that’s all.”

“So you don’t want to show me your bedroom?”

“Not until the third date,” you reply as you can feel your own cheeks growing hot. “At least.”

“I can wait.”

“You’re lucky if you get a kiss at the end of this.”

“I already got one.” He taps two fingers on his cheek to draw your attention back to it. As if you’d somehow forget.

“On the lips, doofus,” you blurt out, as if it wasn’t entirely obvious what you had meant.

“Oh, I’ll get one of those as well.” He leans into your space, close enough for your breaths to mingle, but not close enough to actually touch. “When I drop you off at your place at the end of the night, I’ll walk you to your door like the perfect gentleman. You’ll play hard to get for a little bit, I’ll play along and then, just before I walk away, you’ll tell me that I forgot something and then you’ll kiss me.”

“You really thought about this, haven’t you?”

“What can I say,” he pulls back, putting distance between you once more. “I’ve been planning this for a long time.”

“We’ll see what happens.”

“It’ll happen,” he smirks confidently. “Just you wait.”

He ends up getting that kiss a lot faster than he bargained for.

It happens in the dark of the cinema, knees pressed together, his hand on your thigh, his fingers digging into the pliant flesh and releasing his grip, over and over again.

“Hey, Eddie,” you whisper and as soon as he turns his head, you press your lips against his. Quick and barely there. “Thanks for the date.”

“Aw, sweetheart, you ruined my plans.”

“So? You can pretend this didn’t happen.” You lean your head against his shoulder and he can’t resist kissing your scalp. “Just felt like kissing you, that’s all.”

“I forgive you. I’ll just have to think of something else for when I take you back to your place. Maybe try to get invited in for a cup of coffee or something.”

“Maybe.” You tilt your head up so you can look at him. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

then jayce would not get to see the pleased smile that settles on viktor’s face when tears streak his face from over-sensitivity. he would not get to hear viktor tell him how beautiful he looks with cum covering his chest or how lovely he looks with his legs spread for viktor. 

viktor worships his body. he loves to tie jayce up and curl his fingers inside of him until his voice is destroyed from screaming. 

initially, it was intense for jayce but viktor always made him feel safe. always made him feel good.

and, damn, did it feel good. if they went too long without viktor touching him, jayce would spend his days at the lab longing for the floaty sensation he would reach when viktor took him apart carefully with talented and dexterous fingers.

jayce’s favorite is when viktor gets fitted into the strap just to choke jayce on his cock. when he holds jayce by the back of his head while jayce lays on his stomach on the bed. when viktor stands in front of him and pushes the silicone toy as far down jayce’s throat as he can

in fact, jayce loves the things they do in bed. he cant wait to try new things with viktor. new ways to lift jayce into that headspace that he daydreams about. 

he’s taken to doing some research on his own, boldly suggesting new positions and toys.

viktor was excited at first. happy to have brought out this new side of his once nervous lover. he enthusiastically navigates new activities in the bedroom like choking, spanking, and edging jayce until he begs. 

but, then, he begins to worry that jayce is becoming insatiable.

when jayce finally passes out during sex, viktor fears he created a monster. a sex-crazed monster.